Process Traces of Binary Choices: Evidence for Selective and Adaptive Decision Heuristics

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Abstract
While previous research has shown that human decision processes adjust to the characteristics of choice situations and task demands, the present study examined whether information processing would even adapt to the characteristics of an individual choice pair. By a process tracing method it was found that the amount of inspected information systematically depended upon the particular choice pair. In order to specify the selective and adaptive information processing, criterion-dependent choice models were introduced. These models postulate that information processing continues until the accumulated amount by which one alternative is better than the other reaches or exceeds a certain criterion. These models are strongly supported by the empirical data of the present study. Deviations between model predictions and observed data are explained in terms of fluctuating feature values of the choice alternatives.